Chapter 6 of 8

And I do think I'll be sticking to 8 chapters for this one. I've got the DLC's endgame already mapped out.

What I didn't plan was the full writeup of the Chant of Light that is being crafted over on dreamwidth. Once it's ready and posted I'll toss up a link here but per my previous anti-AI rant I shall NOT be posting any essays of substance here on tumblr ever again.

The Shrine of Dumat calls out to those who would remember. And Anders... is forced to remember.

Chapter 5 of 8, assuming it doesn't get away with me again

Because Varric drank all the booze and they fled Kirkwall without supplies. The image of icicle dicks and trying not to giggle while Sebastian calls everyone degenerates has been a mental image I've had for the better part of a year.

And something is going wrong with Anders. Slowly. Terribly. Corypheus is Calling to him...

Chapter 2 of fuckall but at least next one they'll be in the stupid Vimmarks

Continues the flight from Kirkwall and then some Chantry scheming. Turns out Knight Commander Meredith is pissed - Hawke stole HER HORSE.

Continues some worldbuilding I've had going before, on mages riding sidesaddle. I never learned how to ride sidesaddle, I admit, but I used to ride enough that I can derive the difference. Also, yes, there is just so... much... porn... of the sidesaddle mage being led by the pious Templar. It is Thedas's poolboy trope. You will not change my mind.

Party is Hawke, Varric, Anders, and Sebastian.

I've already agreed with myself, I'm not putting Mark of the Assassin into my world state. Sure it happened but it was also kind of pointless. What, do I really need a fic of leaving that Tallis bitch on the mountain as I fuck off and go home?

But Legacy... I've had a plan for Legacy for a while now, Anders making connections in the darkness of post-DLC introspection. Now, though, after what I've done to Sebastian...

Chapter 1 of fuckall I don't even know. They haven't left Kirkwall. Have stupid posturing and Norah being badass with a broom.

Party is Hawke, Varric, Anders, and Sebastian.

Birds of Starkhaven

Palate cleanser after that last story. Short and fluffy and feathered. Sebastian is trying to get used to his new role in the Chantry when somebody (read: probably a Templar) opens the Chantry door and tosses a chicken inside. During services. With the Grand Cleric trying to ignore it and keep order.

I'm using an older version of the word 'heresy' here, where heresies were not-entirely-acceptable differences in POV that were often ignored in religious context. "Starkhaven's favorite heresy" is taken as seriously as the Fereldan stories of Andraste and the Wyvern, as harmless local color. Though that color is white and comes with a cuisine focused on eggs at every single meal.

Confessions

Chapter 9 of thank fuck it's done 9

It's not my best ending, I admit. A better one would have been having Sebastian break himself out in a Leliana's Song fashion. But the constraints of the storyline I'm working with prevented that. Instead, have some multiple layers. Honestly, this type of thing is the only explanation I can think of for why a rivaled Sebastian would bum around Kirkwall for 3 years between Acts 2 and 3 with Starkhaven right there ripe for the conquering. And it shows the power of any single Grand Cleric, that when necessary they are capable of choosing the same Right and Left Hands that the Divine herself is.

It explains why Elthina sends Sebastian to go meet with Leliana in Act 3. Send the Left Hands to go confer, have the nightingales sing, and each comes away with news. Like so much else in this worldstate, Hawke is only a narrative focus because it's Varric who tells the story.

Also relevant because it delights me right now:

Chapter 8 of 9

Influence

But who is influencing whom. Does Justice still have claws in Sebastian's mind? Or is Sebastian twisting the Templar's image of the Darktown Healer in ways that will turn them all in circles?

Or both.

Probably both.

Most of the torture was confined to last chapter. These interrogations don't descend to the point of requiring physical persuasion.

In case it's not obvious by now, this story is neither Cullen positive, nor Chantry positive, and certainly not Templar positive. But, like Emeric and his investigations, that doesn't mean they're wrong.

Dragon Age magic is a deeper, darker, more eldritch thing than anyone cares to admit. There is a reason the codex cards in Dragon Age Inquisition for magic and magic theory look like this:

like despair and ruin

Chapter 7 of I hope to fuck I can keep this to 8

Penance

Torture! I used to study torture for fun, this was remarkably easy to write. I just needed to get my chromebook to stop fucking off so I could finish the chapter. I think I got all the missing letters added back in but if something looks weird give me a bit I'll fix it later.

Yes, the methods used against Sebastian are the same that were used on Anders in previous stories, in Rule of Three and referenced in Tools of Torment and the Anatomist's Notes. This is not a Templar-positive story, shall we say.

The actual torture is simple and easy, a beginner's torture requiring very little hardware. A whipping against the post. And then sealing the wounds closed with magebane and pinetar.

And the most damning question of all.

"What is the nature of the Darktown Healer?"

Chapter 6 of 8

A Terrible Price

I know, I know. But I also have most of Chapter 7 written AND I have a fucking END to this story. I know where it ends! And I know what happens after, I'm sticking the Legacy DLC soon after this story. And yes, the party for Legacy will be Hawke, Varric, Anders, and Sebastian.

Sebastian makes three Agreements with the spirit before Justice's Fall. The first, the funeral for Leandra. The second, this story, the cure for chokedamp. The Chantry will do everything in its power to prevent the third.

They will fail.

Sebastian has returned to the Chantry over Justice's objections. Whether it is hope or foolishness, Sebastian never believed they'd send him to the Templars.

Chapter 5 of maybe 6 or 7? Surely not more than 8...

I tried. I swear I tried to end it at Chapter 3. It was a great ending, it implied things all worked out, our heroes were successful!

But it did not end.

It is the Winter of 9:34-35 Dragon. The Qunari rampage was only a few short months ago, the city not yet rebuilt or recovered by the time the winter's dreary rains began. Chokedamp ravages the Undercity, extending its long fingers up into Hightown.

Anders developed a cure and with the clinic overwhelmed, he needs to get that cure into the hands of the Chantry. But Justice cannot give something to the Chantry for nothing, this cannot be a gift freely given. The Chantry is undeserving of such gifts.

Luckily they know a guy.

The Agreement with Sebastian was for three days. Those three days are ended and Sebastian has already given the cure to the Chantry, mixed it himself to prove it's not magic, administered it to a patient who then miraculously recovered...

...only to be told the Chantry cannot take the word of a demon, even if that word was bought with Sebastian's own Lost soul.

Sebastian stormed out, again, just as he used to when his family lived and his faith wavered. Now, now though he didn't end up in a bar or a whorehouse. Now he found himself back at the lit lantern seeking the only being in Kirkwall who seemed to value him and his Lost soul.

Justice does not turn him away.

Chapter 4 of fuck if I know anymore

I tried. I swear I tried to end it at Chapter 3. It was a great ending, it implied things all worked out, our heroes were successful!

But it did not end.

It's all about Vows, I think. Most members of the Chantry swear their vows to the Chantry itself as an institution or to a person or to the current Divine. It seems Sebastian was one of those rare types who actually pledged his vows to the Maker. Now, now that he's followed such a vow to the letter, his Vow of Charity upheld by holding the lives of others above his own soul, that Chantry will fault him for it. Because his soul should be worth more than mere lives. Because their own souls are worth more than mere lives, right?

Because if one Brother is setting this kind of example then what does it mean for the rest of them? Because if Grand Cleric Elthina, master of sitting back and letting the Templars win and then taking political credit claiming it 'just', cannot set an example like this... Then what exactly is the Maker's work?

Chantry critical machinations ahead. Also Justice ate a dude again but it's offscreen. I'm sure they deserved it.

Chapter 3 of fuck all if I even know anymore

I admit this story ran away with me. There is a vengeful prince in white enamel armor with firm grip on my wrist, pulling me along with bow in hand into the depths of my mind while black feathered Vengeance cackles as they watch.

I could end it here. Here is a great place to end a story. But I can't. I tried, I can't. I swear I tried...

Contains a fairly deep medical dive into Dragon Age herbalism, contains Anders the midwife, contains Warden secrets, and contains the conclusion of Sebastian's Agreement with Justice.

Now all he has to do is take the cure to the Chantry. Right? Right?!

Chapter 2 of 3

Yeah I said 2 chapters. Then it grew when I wasn't looking. Like fungus. Like the plague this story is about.

Sebastian made his Agreement with the spirit. Three days of his time in exchange for the cure for chokedamp. It's an incurable disease, everyone knows that, and yet he's heard the whispers himself from Darktown, that the Darktown Healer has a cure. Sebastian knows the worth of his own soul and it does not outweigh the hundreds who lay dying on the Chantry steps as all the Chantry offers are final prayers and maybe a loaf of bread while the Affirmed huddle safe and warm and free of disease.

He will pay his penance later, first Justice will have those three days.

Contains me mixing medical knowledge with dragon age magic again, the beginnings of germ theory, background blood drinking, a spirit's Agreement against the more-willing-than-he-realizes, and far more research than it seems at first glance.

Chapter 1 of 2

It is the winter of 9:34-35 Dragon and the city has not had time to rebuild since the Qunari rampage of late autumn 9:34 Dragon. Now, without a Viscount, without centralized efforts, without the time to recover before the clinging mists of winter, Kirkwall suffers its worst outbreak of chokedamp in decades.

Chokedamp, an incurable disease that fills the lungs and renders its sufferers unable to speak for the exhaustion of its coughing fits. Most people pull through on their own, usually, but this year has been particularly deadly.

There's rumor that the Darktown Healer has a cure. Though true, that rumor already overwhelms Anders' clinic. He needs help. He needs to get that cure into the hands of those who are supposed to care about life and limb.

Sebastian has already proven valuable for such a favor. Justice is willing to see just how far the Chantry Brother will go. How much is a man's soul worth?

Warden's Depravity

Dragon Age 2, mid Act 2. The romance with Anders has begun, Sebastian has joined the group, and Varric recently acquired a book. Apparently he has competition in the "telling stories about ridiculous Amells" department. He's telling such a story of Warden's depravity when their own wayward Grey Warden comes in.

Five gold says the Wardens cannot possibly be as depraved as these stories imply. Both Anders and Justice have words to say about Warden Amell's supposed "virtue".

An Anatomist's Notes on Abomination

Height

This is the AO3 edit of the Height post

A palate cleanser after the last two went that hard. Anders is ridiculously tall and nobody can change my 5 foot lol mind. Justice is Avvar, have you SEEN how tall those dudes are. If Justice were allowed to alter Anders' body fully, before he Fell to Vengeance, Anders would have found himself eye to eye with the Arishok.

Justice does not go that far. Just a little bit. Just enough to tweak the ratios of Anders' body toward 'uncanny valley' territory.

An Anatomist's Notes on Abomination

Written less as a story and more like the Scrolls of Banastor as snippets of research that might be found in some later game.

Something less serious after the last one. Anders is tall. To the point of uncanny. He was tall and skinny in Amaranthine but this? Goes too far. A palate cleanser of a codex entry.